Monday Briefing: An ‘All or Nothing' Gaza Deal
After months of work on a cease-fire and hostage release deal in Gaza that has appeared to reach an impasse, U.S. and Israeli officials have signaled that they will push for a comprehensive agreement to end the war.
'We think that we have to shift this negotiation to 'all or nothing' — everybody comes home,' Steve Witkoff, the Trump administration's envoy to the Middle East, said in an audio recording of a meeting with hostages' families over the weekend.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and President Trump are said to be working on a deal that would present Hamas with an ultimatum: release the remaining hostages and agree to terms that would disarm the group, or Israel's military campaign would continue.
The prospect of quickly advancing toward such a deal appeared dim. Mahmoud Mardawi, a Hamas official, said that the group had not received a proposal for a comprehensive deal and that while Hamas supported such an agreement in principle, it would not disarm.
The shift in tone comes as the Israeli government faces global criticism over starvation in Gaza and growing domestic pressure to secure the release of the hostages still held there. Hamas released a video on Friday showing Evyatar David, one of the 20 hostages Israel believes are still living, emaciated in what appeared to be an underground tunnel.
Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
37 minutes ago
- New York Post
Hamas' harrowing hostage video: Letters to the Editor — Aug. 9, 2025
The Issue: A video of emaciated Israeli hostage Evyatar David digging his grave. The horrific photo published in the New York Post — showing an emaciated Israeli hostage — bears a chilling resemblance to images of Holocaust survivors ('Hamas hostage digs own grave,' Aug. 3). It is a stark reminder that the cruelty inflicted by Hamas is not far removed from the barbarism of the Nazis. Advertisement The fact that hostages are being starved, denied medical care and used for propaganda, while their captors appear well-fed, is a moral outrage. Yet much of the liberal press, several Democratic lawmakers and numerous international actors appear more sympathetic to the perpetrators than to the 1,200 innocent victims of Oct. 7 and the remaining hostages who continue to suffer. Seymour Srulowitz Advertisement Englewood, NJ According to news coverage, the life of one Jewish hostage, Evyatar David, is valued a thousand times more than innocent Palestinians dying of hunger and disease. The United States, especially President Trump, always blindly supports Israel. Meanwhile, any support for Palestinians is squashed and quickly judged as antisemitic. Advertisement Anthony Bianco Manhasset It is no coincidence that the photo of a Jew being starved and forced to dig his own grave appeared in The Post on the saddest day of the Hebrew calendar — Tisha B'Av. Those who perpetrated the horrors of the Holocaust have disappeared, and so will Hamas. Advertisement The world now has many more righteous people who abhor evil. Among them are the editorialists and reporters of the New York Post, who are not afraid to report evil and cruelty as it occurs, which will help defeat them and make the world a better place. Mel Young Lawrence This is a sad reminder of those horrific photos of Jews digging mass graves before being murdered by Nazi soldiers. It's sad that some deny it, few remember it and fewer have learned from it. Jerry Chiappetta Monticello Advertisement The harrowing image of Israeli hostage Evyatar David, 24, looking like a Holocaust victim is one the world must see. It is a reminder to those who have forgotten about the sheer evil that Hamas represents. It is also a reminder of our sacred obligation to bring the remaining hostages home immediately. Stephen Silver Advertisement San Francisco, Calif. Keep up with today's most important news Stay up on the very latest with Evening Update. Thanks for signing up! Enter your email address Please provide a valid email address. By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Never miss a story. Check out more newsletters The Issue: John Lott Jr.'s Post column criticizing economists opposing President Trump's tariffs. Tariff opponents really just hate President Trump and like cheap goods ('Tariff 'Experts' Failed,' John Lott, PostOpinion, Aug. 7). Advertisement But we all know these cheap goods are produced because of child and slave labor. Any member of organized labor that stands for workers' rights for all members of the labor pool should be the biggest supporter of tariffs. Tariffs force nations to compete with US labor on an even playing field and remove incentives for exploitative foreign labor practices. Nick McNulty Advertisement Windham, NH John Lott's attempt to shield Trump's tariffs from economists' criticisms misses the mark. Economists oppose these tariffs because they are protectionist. These levies are meant to restructure the US economy and eliminate trade deficits by dramatically reducing imports. It is this protectionist effort that we oppose, and predict will inflict economic harm on Americans. Only by ignoring these consequences is Lott able to paint economists as clueless ideologues. Donald Boudreaux Fairfax, Va. Want to weigh in on today's stories? Send your thoughts (along with your full name and city of residence) to letters@ Letters are subject to editing for clarity, length, accuracy, and style.
The Hill
37 minutes ago
- The Hill
Netanyahu office denies reported shouting match with Trump
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office denied reports alleging President Trump berated the leader for denying there is a starvation crisis in Gaza amid the Israel-Hamas war. 'The report alleging that a shouting match occurred between Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Trump is total fake news,' Netanyahu's office said in a Friday statement after NBC News reported the turbulent discussion. The phone call reportedly occurred on July 28, after the president told reporters he'd seen images of individuals who 'look very hungry' and said there's 'real starvation' just a day after Netanyahu rejected stories detailing famine. The Israeli prime minister requested a conversation with Trump during his trip to Scotland and was connected to the leader within hours, NBC News reported. One U.S. official told the outlet that the president did 'most of the talking' during 'a direct, mostly one-way conversation about the status of humanitarian aid.' Tensions over humanitarian aid on the ground, particularly the American Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), came up. 'The U.S. not only feels like the situation is dire, but they own it because of GHF,' the former U.S. official briefed on the call told NBC. The White House said the Trump administration's priority is to deliver food to those in need while pushing forward with ceasefire negotiations.
Politico
38 minutes ago
- Politico
Trump embraces role of peacemaker in Azerbaijan and Armenia deal
But Trump has struggled to secure more high-profile peace agreements, namely one to end Russia's war against Ukraine and one to permanently end Israel's conflict with the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Trump campaigned on ending both conflicts, saying that he'd end the Russia-Ukraine war on his first day in office. In the case of the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the Trump team built off diplomatic work undertaken during the Biden administration and using many of the same frameworks the Biden administration proposed to Armenia and Azerbaijan. 'We moved the ball quite far down the field — obviously did not get a ratified peace agreement, but got the essence, the major principles of a peace agreement agreed between the two sides,' argued Mike Carpenter, who served as senior director for Europe on the Biden administration National Security Council. Aliyev and Pashinyan both reacted positively to the frameworks the Biden team outlined, but Baku opted to wait for the presidential election to unfold, former officials said, before committing to any peace deal. The deterioration of the relationship between Russia and Azerbaijan also helped get the deal across the line, argued Matthew Bryza, a former U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan. On Christmas Day 2024, Russia allegedly downed an Azerbaijani passenger plane using a surface-to-air missile. Russian leader Vladimir Putin never apologized for the incident, and successive mistreatments of Azeris in Russia rattled Aliyev. Friday's deal affords Baku a great deal of other concessions. The U.S. will again provide Azerbaijan with security assistance — which at one point totaled $100 million between funding and military equipment. Washington will also withdraw from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's Minsk Group, a negotiating group led by the United States, Russia and France which Azerbaijan complained was unnecessary after it took back the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave after its 2020 war with Armenia. Armenian diaspora groups have criticized the agreement, arguing that it blocks any lasting peace by postponing discussions about the right of Armenians displaced from the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave in 2023 to return to their homelands, as well as the status of prisoners of war taken by Azerbaijan and Armenian cultural sites in the enclave. But the White House insists the deal is still a positive one for Yerevan, one that gives it the U.S. and a strategic commercial partner.
